Teaching, rebuking, correcting & training in righteous web design.

How church website design documentation (doesn’t) get done

July 31, 2007by meandean

At some point, some savvy steward inÂ aÂ church raises the question “What happens if our all-knowing, Ã¼ber church web design geek leaves? We should have them teach us how it works.” At which point even more hilarity ensues as the following process begins innocently enough in the form of an ‘educational’ ad-hoc Internet committee meeting:

Committee chair: brings the ‘how the church website design works meeting’ to order

Pastor/staff member: sheepishly asks the webmaster how the blessed thing works

Church webmaster: disdainfully glares at the council members … wondering why no one else has read the WordPress Codex

Committee meeting: sound of crickets chirping can heard in background

Adjacent hallway: little kids gather hoping to snarf down a left-over donut when the meeting adjourns

Committee chair: passes a note to pastor to ask a specific question on a specific aspect of the website

Pastor/staff member: sheepishly asks the webmaster how a specific element of the website design works

Church webmaster: disdainfully glares at the council members … visibly upset how badly everyone missed the point of everything

Committee members: the webmaster berates them, in between insults throwing off valuable nuggets of technical information

Pastor/staff member: sheepishly ducks out into the hallway claiming to want to calm down the crying kids

Church webmaster: disdainfully glares at the council members … moodily awaiting next question …

Committee members: try like dickens to weave together the informational nuggets dispensed in between insults into something enlightening and technically accurate

Adjacent hallway: enraged parents of crying children begin to gather with torches and pitchforks

Goto step 6 until church webmaster is summarily ex-communicated

Here’s my point:

To my beloved church website design gurus out there, please spare yourself the shame of said scenario and either install a and/or sign-up with wiki service. Then when you have a spare moment, document some of the things you do.

The wording may not be perfect but it’s enough of a start that would allow others less … how shall we say … technically adept but more gifted in word-smithing to collaborate said documents into perfection.

As I’ve noted before, WikiSpaces is free (and easy), so you have no excuse – other than wanting to spread His love and your knowledge through the ministry of disdainful glares.